I purchased a horse named Trixie at the end of February.
With purchasing this horse, I have learned a lot and am not done learning yet.
I am going to tell you what I have learned. I will start with my intentions and
goals, then talk about how far she has come, and finally I will share what I
have learned.
I like to set goals for myself and for my horses. When I was
thinking about purchasing Trixie, it was hard for me to create a goal to work
towards. I did not know if my goal should be running barrels or just riding or
maybe something as simple as catching her. After getting her home, I soon
figured out what our goals should be. Here is the list of goals:
1.
Walk up and catch her with minimal effort.
2.
Teach her to walk into the trailer.
3.
Teach her to lead by your side at walk, trot,
and back.
4.
Saddle and ride her.
5.
Desensitize her to guns, whips, tarps, etc.
6.
Teach her everything a horse needs to now.
Most of these goals have been reached, but there are still a
few we’re working on. The end goal for me is to sell her to a caring home that
will love her for the rest of her life.
From the day I brought her home till today, the journey has
been long but fun. When we went to pick her up, it took my dad and me over 30
minutes to catch her, and that was in a very small pen. Then it took over 2
hours to load her in the trailer, because she was untrained. The one thing I
like about her is she doesn’t forget. After getting her home, it only took one
trailer loading session to get her to load like a champion. She remembers
everything we work on. She is a nice horse to ride but really likes to go fast.
She is working on slowing down. She has improved the most with grooming. She
did not know what grooming was when I got her. She would hunch her
hind-quarters or quiver when touched. Now she is like an angel and will stand
loving every second of attention she receives.
I have learned a ton from this little 3-year-old bay mare.
The first thing she taught me was to wait and think about the decision of
buying a horse. During the pre-sale check, I noticed that she had really bad
rain rot. Once I got her home, I had to treat and take care of a horse with
rain rot. Training wise, I have learned about young, un-handled horses.
Starting horses may be my occupation; so I am getting started as early as I
can.
Trixie still has along way to go but she has come so far in
the last couple weeks. I got her as an unbroken 3 year old and am turning her
into a well-trained horse. If you have any questions about Trixie, feel free to
ask at any time.
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| Trixie with a new rider. |
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| First day |
